From time to time it is known that users wish to obtain electronic images of real life target objects. Many such target objects have a rectangular, including square, shape. In order to provide an electronic image, an image capturing device such as a flatbed scanner or camera are utilized to provide digital image data responsive to the appearance of the target object. Because of alignment problems, it is known that the images of target objects can be over or under sized and can also include an element of skew. When an image is to be transmitted from one location to another, it is often advantageous to have the image fitted to a standardized size and shape. This includes cropping the image to adjust the image to a pre-determined threshold size. This also includes de-skewing whereby an image set at an angle with respect to a viewing display is tilted to be more closely aligned with a desired orientation. Various techniques are known for carrying out the de-skewing and cropping processes.
A particular situation where the provision of an electronic image in a suitable cropped and de-skewed format is required is in the technical field of financial checking. In some countries, for example in the USA, an image of a check is considered a negotiable instrument. Processes have therefore been introduced to carry out an image capture process whereby digital images of the checks for subsequent exchange between financial institutions are provided.
Prior known techniques include a flatbed scanner application in which a user locates a rectangular check on a flatbed scanner and then scans the document. Electronic image data is produced which is utilized to display an electronic image on a user display. In order to crop and de-skew the image, it is known to provide a rectangular box around the image on a user display. A user then rotates this box as a separate step. Often rotating the image to de-skew requires re-adjusting a bounding box size and/or shape and this makes the current state of the art error prone, time consuming and difficult for non-trained people to carry out.
Indeed, even an expert user can take tens of seconds to get a selection sized and aligned and ensure that the alignment process has been carried out accurately. This is a barrier to use for many document scanning applications, including, but not limited to, scanning of negotiable checking documents.